MEHEMED ALl'S SLAVE-HUNTS. 315 venge they heed no impediment, not even death itself; over the dead body of his fallen comrade the successor marches with impetuosity, his mind totally engrossed by ideas of plunder and murder ; and thus the tillage is at last captured in spite of the most resolute defence. But now, indeed, is vengeance terrific : neither aged men nor the infirm, neither helpless women and children, nor, indeed, the babe unborn are spared ; every hut is pimidered, the property of the unfortunate besieged either pillaged or destroyed, and whosoever falls into the hands of the destroyer with his life is carried dovn into the camp as captive. When the negroes see that resistance is no longer of avail, they frequently prefer suicide, unless prevented, to slavery ; and thus it often occurs that a father rips up the abdomen of his wife, then of his children, and lastly murders himself, to avoid falling alive into the hands of the enemy. Others endeavour to escape captiWty by secreting themselves in caverns, where they pass many days without food ; they there lie upon their backs, and "will remain in this position sometimes for an entire week. I have been informed that a man can very well bear the whole of the eight days without nourishment, if he have only surmounted the difficulty of the first three days. But even in this covert they are not safe, as the monsters either hunt them up or destroy them in their places of refuge ; for the soldiers light fires with pitch, sul-